Additional revenues generated by the national government from privatization of its idle assets jumped 472.5 percent to P3.12 billion as of end-September.
The latest Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) data on Thursday, Oct. 24, showed privatization proceeds almost quintupled from P544.88 million in the first nine months of last year.
The Privatization and Management Office (PMO), an agency attached to the Department of Finance (DOF), accounted for all of these nine-month privatization revenues.
The PMO raises money from sales, lease rental, interest and other income.
The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), which had been tasked to dispose of assets related to ill-gotten wealth of dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.'s family and cronies, has not contributed any privatization revenue since the about P900,000 it remitted in May 2023.
But Finance Undersecretary Catherine L. Fong, who heads the DOF's privatization and partnerships group, last month said the PCGG had submitted to her office a list of its privatization pipeline, which shall be up for approval by the interagency Privatization Council.
Last month, DOF Undersecretary and Chief Economic Counselor Domini SD. Velasquez said the Marcos Jr. administration is aggressively pursuing non-tax revenues through privatization.
According to Velasquez, among the government assets to be privatized in the near term include the 2.2-hectare Mile Long complex in Makati City, the Star City property in Pasay City, shares of stock in Semirara Mining Corp. and United Coconut Chemicals Inc., Elorde Sports and Tourism Development Corp. facilities, as well as condominium units at Atrium in Makati.
Fong had told Manila Bulletin that at least three real estate developers are setting their sights on the prime Mile Long property.
The Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) targets to raise P42.1 billion from privatization this year, up from just P865.47 million in 2023.
For 2025, the Marcos Jr. administration's goal is a more ambitious and a record-high P100 billion from privatization proceeds. To date, the highest-ever annual revenues from privatization were generated in 2007, with P90.62 billion.
The government wanted to raise more non-tax revenues, including from privatization, due to a projected shortfall in tax collection this year, to P3.82 trillion, from the original program of P4.07 trillion under the 2024 national budget.
"Specifically, an expected shortfall of approximately P253.3 billion will come from tax revenues, with both the BIR [Bureau of Internal Revenue] and BOC [Bureau of Customs] falling below the original targets by P197.8 billion and P60.5 billion, respectively," the DBCC said in its 2024 Mid-Year Report published on Sept. 30.
"To compensate for the shortfall in tax revenues, the projections for non-tax revenues were revisited and additional revenue sources were identified to help ensure sufficient fiscal space," the DBCC said.
In particular, the DOF added P41.6-billion worth of public assets to be privatized to the original program of only P500 million for this year.
Also, the DOF jacked up mandatory dividend rates of government-owned and/or -controlled corporations (GOCCs) to 75 percent from 50 percent last year, as well as expects P20 billion and P30 billion, respectively, from the private proponents of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX) and Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) public-private partnership (PPP) projects.
The BTr's latest cash operations report (COR) released also on Thursday showed that non-tax revenues climbed 62.5 percent year-on-year to P481.1 billion as of end-September, as well as exceeded the nine-month program of P315.9 billion by 52.3 percent.
In a statement, the BTr attributed the surge in non-tax revenues to the one-off windfall from the privatization of NAIA, whose private proponent led by the conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) remitted to the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) its upfront payment of P30 billion last month.